Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play explained

The Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play is an award presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA) (the trade name for the Australian Entertainment Industry Association (AEIA)), an employers' organisation which serves as the peak body in the live entertainment and performing arts industries in Australia. The accolade is handed out at the annual Helpmann Awards, which celebrates achievements in musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, opera, classical music, theatre, dance and physical theatre.^[1]

Cate Blanchett has the most wins in this category with four, for Hedda Gabler, Uncle Vanya, Gross und Klein (Big and Small) and The Maids.

Winners and nominees

In the following list winners are listed first and marked in gold, in boldface, and the nominees are listed below with no highlight.

• Source:^{[2] [3]}

Year	Actor	Production	Character(s)
2001 (1st)
	Caroline O'Connor	Piaf	Edith Piaf
	Amanda Muggleton	The Book Club	Deborah
	Robyn Nevin	A Cheery Soul	Miss Docker
	Leah Purcell	Box the Pony	Leah/Steff
2002 (2nd)
	Amanda Muggleton	Master Class	Maria Callas
	Essie Davis	The School for Scandal	Lady Teazle
	Kris McQuade	Cloudstreet	Dolly Pickle
	Caroline O'Connor	Bombshells	Various
2003 (3rd)
	Rachel Griffiths	Proof	Catherine
	Deborah Mailman	The Seven Stages of Grieving (co-written by Mailman)	Woman
	Miranda Otto	A Doll's House	Nora Helmer
	Sigrid Thornton	The Blue Room	Various
2004 (4th)
	Maggie Smith	Talking Heads – A Bed Among the Lentils	Susan
	Carol Burns	A Conversation	The Mother
	Judy Davis	Victory	Bradshaw
	Helen Morse	Frozen	Nancy
2005 (5th)
	Cate Blanchett	Hedda Gabler	Hedda Gabler
	Julie Forsyth	The Ham Funeral	Alma Lusty
	Deborah Mailman	The Sapphires	Cynthia Mcrae
	Pamela Rabe	Dinner	Paige
2006 (6th)
	Caroline O'Connor	End of the Rainbow	Judy Garland
	Jennifer Flowers	Doubt	Sister Aloysius
	Victoria Longley	The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?	Stevie
	Leah Purcell	Stuff Happens	Condoleezza Rice
2007 (7th)
	Ursula Yovich	Capricornia	Capricornia
	Elena Kalinina	Uncle Vanya	Sonia
	Pamela Rabe	Mother Courage and Her Children	Mother Courage
	Alison van Reeken	The Carnivores	Nill and Neka
2008 (8th)
	Leah Purcell	The Story of the Miracles at Cookie's Table	Annie
	Kate Dickie	Aalst	Cathy Delaney
	Catherine McClements	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Martha
	Genevieve Picot	Rock 'n' Roll	Eleanor/Esme
2009 (9th)
	Robyn Nevin	Women of Troy	Hecuba
	Alison Bell	Blackbird	Una
	Cate Blanchett	War of the Roses	Richard II
	Pamela Rabe	War of the Roses	Richard III
2010 (10th)
	Julie Forsyth	Happy Days	Winnie
	Kathryn Hunter	Kafka's Monkey	Ape
	Jane Menelaus		Barbara Fordham
	Robyn Nevin		Violet Weston
2011 (11th)
	Cate Blanchett	Uncle Vanya	Yelena
	Robin McLeavy	Measure for Measure	Isabella
	Robyn Nevin	Long Day's Journey into Night	Mary Cavan Tyrone
	Ursula Yovich	Waltzing the Wilarra	Elsa
2012 (12th)
	Cate Blanchett	Gross und Klein (Big and Small)	Lotte
	Robyn Nevin	Neighbourhood Watch	Ana
	Bernadette Robinson	Songs For Nobodies	Various
	Helen Thomson	Summer of the Seventeenth Doll	Pearl
2013 (13th)
	Alison Bell	Hedda Gabler	Hedda Gabler Tesman
	Alison Bell	Constellations	Marianne
	Helen Thomson	Mrs. Warren's Profession	Mrs Kitty Warren
	Christen O'Leary	End of the Rainbow	Judy Garland
2014 (14th)
	Cate Blanchett	The Maids	Claire
	Zahra Newman	The Mountaintop	Camae
	Alison Whyte	The Bloody Chamber
	Ursula Yovich	Mother Courage and her Children	Mother Courage
2015 (15th)
	Pamela Rabe	The Glass Menagerie
	Julie Forsyth	Night on Bald Mountain
	Robyn Nevin	Suddenly Last Summer
	Sarah Peirse	Switzerland
2016 (16th)
	Paula Arundell	The Bleeding Tree
	Cate Blanchett	The Present
	Noni Hazlehurst	Mother
	Catherine McClements	The Events
2017 (17th)
	Kate Mulvany	Richard 3
	Helen Morse	John
	Leah Purcell	The Drover's Wife
	Alison Whyte	Faith Healer
2018 (18th)
	Pamela Rabe	The Children
	Miranda Daughtry	A Doll's House
	Helen Morse	Memorial
	Sarah Peirse	The Children
2019 (19th)^[4] ^[5]
	Kate Mulvany	Every Brilliant Thing
	Helen Thomson	Mary Stuart	Queen Elizabeth I
	Sarah Snook	Saint Joan	Saint Joan
	Melita Jurisic	Arbus & West	Mae West
	Paula Arundell	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Parts One and Two)	Hermione Granger (older)

See also

• Helpmann Awards

Notes

A: Caroline O'Connor played six characters in the play Bombshells: Meryl Davenport, Tiggy Entwhistle, Mary O’Donnell, Theresa McTerry, Winsome Webster and Zoe Struthers.^[6]

B: In The Blue Room, Sigrid Thornton portrayed the female characters: Irene, Marie, Emma, Kelly and the Actress.^[7]

External links

• The official Helpmann Awards website

Notes and References

1. News: Helpmann Awards - About . 31 December 2012 . . Live Performance Australia (LPA) . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120112191332/http://www.helpmannawards.com.au/default.aspx?s=haabout . 12 January 2012 . dmy-all .
2. News: Nominees . 3 October 2011. . Live Performance Australia . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081206092032/http://www.helpmannawards.com.au/default.aspx?s=nominees . 6 December 2008 . dmy-all .
3. Web site: Australian Web Archive 2001 Helpmann Awards Nominees . https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20030717140000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/24614/20030718-0000/www.helpmannawards.com/2001nominees.html. dead. 17 July 2003. . 4 October 2011.
4. Web site: 2019 Nominees and Winners Helpmann Awards. www.helpmannawards.com.au. 2019-07-16.
5. Web site: 2019 Helpmann Awards Act II presented. Limelight. en-AU. 2019-07-16.
6. Web site: Sydney Arts Guide - Bombshells . Sydney Arts Guide . 12 December 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120502074816/http://www.sydneyartsguide.com/View-Review.asp?ReviewID=14 . 2 May 2012 . dmy-all .
7. Web site: Sigrid Thornton - The Blue Room . SigridThornton.com . 6 October 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111127150709/http://www.sigridthornton.com/blueroom.asp . 27 November 2011 . dead .